Guj tribals walk home along rail track from UP

Vadodara: Three days before the first shramik special train rolled out from Gujarat carrying migrant labourers to their home in Uttar Pradesh from Ahmedabad, 14 tribal labourers from Gujarat stuck in UP started their 1,100km journey home from Moradabad, making the railway track their compass.
Battling heat strokes, hunger, thirst and swollen blistered feet, these people trudged on relentlessly, day and night, to be with their families in Bilvant, a remote village in the tribal-dominated Chhota Udepur.
However, on Wednesday, their arduous footmarch was cut short by a soldier from the same district, who took it upon himself to bring them home from Ratlam in Madhya Pradesh. The 14 workers were employed in a Moradabad unit of a New Delhi-based FMCG company. Facing uncertainty after the lockdown and finding it difficult to make ends meet, the migrants decided to walk home.
“We were not getting food to eat and were also running out of money. We contacted the political leaders there to find us some means to help us reach home, but nothing happened. It was then that we finally decided to walk,” said Gurusharan Dhanak, adding that that the troupe walked along the railway tracks to reach till Delhi.
“Upon reaching Delhi, we told the police that we wanted to go to Gujarat. They provided us with some food and then dropped us till Jaipur,” Dhanak told TOI, adding that they again resumed their home-bound walk from Jaipur.
Meanwhile, news of their strenuous journey kept their families and villagers worried. “We were afraid of their safety and so contacted the politicians and authorities here in Chhota Udepur,” said Dhanak’s father Nazru. He added that due to the lockdown even the politicians could not do much to help.
Vinu Rathwa, sarpanch of Bilvant village said, “We had brought back 6,000 labourers of our taluka from different parts of the state in March. We also wanted to bring these boys but permission was taking time.”
It so happened that lockdown also kept a soldier of the same village stranded at home. Bhavsinh Rathwa, a rifleman with Assam Rifles, heard about the youths’ plight and decided to drive down to wherever they had reached. He brought them home in his Toofan from Ratlam and reached on Thursday.
“I asked Vinubhai about their location and on Wednesday morning I went with some food and reached Ratlam,” said Bhavsinh, who fed the tired lot ‘rotlo’ and ‘bhaji’ before ferrying them home.